Ghostly Fears

by Lily Harper Hart

  “Heart.” Jared put his hand to Harper’s back. He understood what was upsetting her. For as long as he’d known her, Phil and Gloria had been going through the most tempestuous divorce known to man. They’d been arguing about spoons, toilet paper, and even wicker furniture that was so old you couldn’t sit on it without falling through and landing on the pavement. He’d assumed, like everyone else, that they hated each other.

  He’d been wrong.

  Several weeks before, in the middle of a murder investigation revolving around Gloria’s current boyfriend, Harper and Jared walked in on them ... spending quality time together ... under their own roof. Come to find out, it was a normal occurrence and they had no intention of stopping. Harper was still traumatized by what she witnessed.

  “I’m sorry.” Harper held up her hands in capitulation. “I simply don’t understand what’s going on. Are you guys back together?”

  “Well, we’ve been giving that some thought,” Phil hedged. “We’ve found that we really don’t thrive when we’re under the same roof.”

  “Not even a little,” Gloria agreed.

  “We fight. We call each other names. Occasionally we throw things.”

  “I throw things,” Gloria corrected. “Your father doesn't. He’s not a victim of his own toxic masculinity. I read about that affliction online, by the way, and I can’t tell you how happy I am that it doesn’t pertain to your father.”

  Harper could do nothing but openly gape.

  “So, you’re not getting back together?” Jared prodded, confused. If they weren’t getting back together, why were they holding hands?

  “We didn’t say that,” Gloria offered hurriedly. “We said we couldn’t live together.”

  “So, what does that leave?” Harper asked, finding her voice.

  “We’re going to keep separate roofs and go out together several times a week.”

  “You’re dating,” Harper surmised. “You’re going to date each other.”

  “Essentially.” Gloria bobbed her head. “We’re tabling the divorce while we date each other.”

  “Does that mean you’re going to work on getting back together?” Harper queried.

  “Perhaps, or we might just try to come up with a sex schedule or something. It’s all up in the air.”

  “Oh, geez.” Harper dropped her head into her hands as Jared fought the mad urge to laugh. The situation shouldn’t be funny ... and yet all he wanted to do was laugh.

  “Basically we’re saying that we love each other, but we don’t know if we can live together,” Phil offered. “We just thought you should know.”

  “Well, thanks for that,” Harper said sarcastically. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to hear that.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  4

  Four

  They took two vehicles, mostly for practical reasons. Eric and Molly rode in one vehicle with all the equipment. Everyone else piled into Jared’s truck for the half-hour ride to the ferry dock. Jared, who hadn’t spent much time riding on ferries that carried vehicles, was amused at the sight.

  “This is huge.”

  Harper arched an eyebrow as she looked around. It was cold, the wind bitter, but Jared insisted on getting out so he could see things up close and personal.

  “Compared to the ferry that crosses Lake Michigan, this is tiny,” she countered, burrowing into her coat. “I thought it was supposed to be spring. It doesn’t feel like spring.”

  Jared automatically moved behind her so he could snuggle close. “I think it’s cool.”

  He seemed excited, which made Harper happy, but she was moody thanks to the biting wind. “I know this is a man thing, but I can’t take the cold.” She shivered before reaching into his pocket to retrieve the keys. “I’m going to sit in the truck and keep warm.”

  “Okay.” Jared wasn’t bothered about being abandoned. He gave her a quick kiss. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

  “Don’t hurry on my account. I know you want to look around. Go ahead and do your thing. It’s not as if we’re not all going to the same place.”

  “Good point.”

  Harper was only in the truck for two minutes, the heat vent pointed directly at her, when Zander hopped in to join her.

  “This is the absolute worst,” he complained, lowering his face so the warm air blasted directly on it. “Shawn is out there acting like it’s some grand adventure. I think he’s lost his mind.”

  Harper laughed, genuinely amused. She was relieved they’d made up, although that was never in doubt. They were lifers when it came to friendship. Nothing could ever tear them apart for more than a few days.

  “I think it must be something we don’t understand.” She shivered a bit even as the truck started to warm. “Jared thinks it’s the neatest thing ever, too.”

  “I’m pretty sure he thinks you’re the neatest thing ever.” Zander rested his head against the steering wheel. Instead of hopping in the back, he opted to be upfront with his best friend. He would have to move when Jared returned, but for now he was perfectly happy. “So, I’ve been thinking about Jennifer.”

  The comment, seemingly from out of nowhere, filled Harper with surprise. “I have, too.”

  “Really? What have you been feeling?”

  “Ridiculous guilt.”

  “You have?” Zander exhaled heavily, relief palpable. “I’m so glad I’m not the only one. Shawn asked me about her last night after you guys left — and I’d already ranted and raved about how I was never going to forgive you for like an hour — and he asked a few questions that made me feel like a jerk.”

  Harper was legitimately curious. “Like what?”

  “Like ... how come we didn’t invite her to hang out with us more if she was so obviously lonely.” His smile was rueful. “I don’t remember considering it when we were kids but, looking back, it seems like something we should’ve done.”

  Harper had come to the same realization. “Yeah. Jared asked me the same stuff. He asked me why I didn’t come up here looking for her after she disappeared, other than those two days when I didn’t put a lot of effort into it. I already knew what I could do, and it would’ve been helpful to try and find Jennifer. I never did, though.”

  “I don’t blame you for that. I mean ... you were a kid. You were still careful about putting your powers on display. That was before we had any idea what we were going to do with our lives.”

  “I wasn’t a kid, though. Not really. I was an adult. That’s right before we graduated. I should’ve helped.”

  “Under most circumstances, you would’ve readily volunteered. I wonder why you didn’t back then.”

  “I’ve been wondering that, too, and I haven’t come up with anything that doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable. You know, Jared mentioned that she was an outsider like us. That she didn’t fit in with the other kids and never had friends of her own to confide in. I can’t remember her hanging out with anyone, can you?”

  Zander pursed his lips. “Not especially,” he confirmed after a beat. “I mean ... she was friendly with everybody, but she wasn’t exactly tight with anybody in particular.”

  “No, and that really bothers me.” Harper looked around to make sure Jared and Shawn weren’t heading back in their direction. She wasn’t exactly keen to admit to the next part. “All I can come up with is that we shut her out because of the money. It’s like we naturally assumed she couldn’t be one of us because her father was rich, and that seems awfully judgmental for a gay guy trying to find himself and a girl who could talk to ghosts.”

  Instead of commiserating with her, Zander’s eyes lit with mirth. “We were the dynamic duo. Ghost girl and gay guy. Remember when we started that club?”

  Harper smirked at the memory. “Yeah. It was you and me against the world. I can’t help but wonder if Jennifer wouldn’t have benefitted from having someone to talk to, like you and me used to talk to one another.”

  “I’m sure she could have, and I regret t
hat we were so self-absorbed that we couldn’t see she was in pain. However, we can’t go back in time and change that. All we can do is move forward and try to right some past wrongs while we’re out here.”

  “Yeah.” Harper took on a far-off expression as she turned her attention out the window. “What did you think about her father? I’ve been trying to think back regarding him, too, and I can only ever remember seeing him at school events a few times.”

  “I think he acts like he’s got a really uncomfortable stick wedged up his you-know-what. He’s a huge jerk. That doesn’t mean he didn’t love Jennifer, or that he doesn’t feel her loss. He might be one of those guys who can’t display his emotions in the correct way.”

  “Good point.” Harper had been thinking the same thing. Of course, she’d also been wondering if this was all for show and he was hoping to take suspicion off himself once and for all. “Do you remember when it first happened? The police questioned him and we were all atwitter. We thought that meant he had to be guilty.”

  “I remember.” Zander turned grim. “That was the talk of the town. I heard my mother and Mel gossiping behind closed doors. Mel was a detective back then, of course, and he liked to gossip even when it was against the rules.”

  In addition to being Zander’s uncle, Mel was also Jared’s partner so Harper was well aware of his penchant for talking out of turn. He was like an uncle to her, though, so she forgave him everything. He’d been the source of endless amusement and numerous ridiculous outings back in the day. “What did he say?”

  “He said there was some question about why Byron waited as long as he did to report Jennifer missing. Apparently it was more than a day before he filed the report.”

  Harper’s eyes went wide. “Seriously? That doesn’t sound like a concerned parent.”

  “No, but it was more than that. Mel said that Byron didn’t even realize she was missing. Apparently one of the maids told him that she hadn’t slept in her bed and then he searched the island for her before finally calling for help. By then no one had seen her for like thirty-six hours.”

  Now that he mentioned it, Harper vaguely remembered reading something like that in the newspaper. “Right. People theorized he kept it to himself because he actually did something to her. After the fact, though, a lot of people came to his defense and said that he wasn’t a killer, just neglectful.”

  “Right. Plus, as far as I remember, almost everyone believed that Jennifer ran away. There was no evidence she was taken and people assumed she had enough money to run and hide.”

  “But did she have enough money to hide from the investigators her father most likely hired? That’s the question. Jennifer was a smart girl, but she didn’t seem all that worldly. She also would’ve been planning this long before she carried it out and nobody found any evidence of that.”

  “Yeah.” Zander stroked his chin, thoughtful. “Do you think Byron will open up about all that?”

  Harper had been asking herself the same question. The only answer she could come up with was a resounding no.

  TWENTY MINUTES LATER, JARED PULLED into the long and winding driveway that led to Jessup Manor. Harper explained the family gave it that moniker years before, when Jennifer was in high school and after Byron’s mother gave the house to him, and she’d acted mortified when word got out.

  “Well, I get why you guys refer to it as a castle,” Jared noted, parking in the spot indicated by a uniformed attendant. “This place is ... unreal. It reminds me of a hotel more than a house.”

  “It’s ostentatious,” Harper agreed. “Still, I’ve always wanted to see inside. A visit is fine. I much prefer our place to this one, though.”

  Jared chuckled. “Yeah. You can’t tell me you wouldn’t want to live in a castle. I’m pretty sure I’ll never make enough for that to become a reality.”

  “I don’t want to live in a castle.” Harper was matter-of-fact. “A home isn’t about size or the number of items you can fit inside of it. Home is about this.” She reached over and pressed her hand to the spot above his heart.

  “No, home is about this,” Jared countered, giving her a soft kiss before collecting his keys. Zander mimed gagging from behind them, but Jared ignored him. “This is going to be an interesting weekend. Let’s see if we can find a traumatized ghost, shall we?”

  Harper nodded without hesitation. “Yeah. There’s Mr. Jessup now. I guess he was expecting us.” She inclined her chin toward the front walk, which looked to be made out of river rock paving stones. “I hope I don’t trip over my tongue because I’m too nervous to talk.”

  “It will be fine,” Jared reassured her. “We’re all here together. It’s going to be okay.”

  Harper could only hope that was true. Still, she was a professional. She was determined to approach this job like she would anything else. That’s why she had a friendly but relaxed smile on her face when she greeted Byron. “It’s nice to see you again, Mr. Jessup.” She extended her hand.

  Because it was a social nicety that he couldn’t simply ignore, Byron took it. He wasn’t exactly gregarious in his greeting, though. “Ms. Harlow. It will probably be easier, less rigid, if you call me Byron.”

  Harper noted that he didn’t say he wanted her to call him Byron because it was less informal. He was simply insisting on it because he didn’t want people to talk, whisper about him being unapproachable behind his back. “Sure. Where would you like us to go?”

  “Well, there’s been some discussion about that.” Byron slid his eyes to the gentleman standing next to him, a staid individual with snowy white hair — even though he was probably only in his fifties — and a suit that looked as if it cost more than Harper’s car. “Your contingent is by far the largest we have coming in.”

  Harper balked. “You didn’t say there was a limit.”

  Byron offered up an impatient hand wave. “And there’s not. You’re also the one closest to this location, so it makes sense that you would be bringing more people with you. You’re the only one I’ve hired who actually knew Jennifer.”

  “She was a really sweet girl,” Harper said automatically.

  “She was dependable,” Byron agreed. “She was not the type to wander off alone. That’s why I know someone took her. She wouldn’t willingly leave.”

  “Hopefully we’ll be able to prove that,” Harper offered, immediately wishing she’d phrased it a different way. “I don’t mean I hope that she’s dead. That would be weird. You know what I mean, though.”

  Byron arched an eyebrow. “I believe I do. As it stands, your group is rather large. This is Bates, my butler. We’ve been discussing the lodging arrangements and we believe it would be best for your group to take over the guesthouse. There are four bedrooms, a private bathroom and kitchen, and basically anything else you could possibly need.”

  Harper’s initial reaction was disappointment. She wanted to see the main house. Then she realized she would still be visiting. This way, though, she would have space to retreat to that was set back from the rest of the guests. This really was the best of both worlds.

  “The guesthouse sounds great,” she enthused. “We have a lot of equipment and this will allow us to pick and choose what we need depending on the specific situation.”

  “Then it worked out well.” Byron looked bored, as if he was in distress having to talk to people below his financial station.

  His reaction had Harper biting the inside of her cheek. “If you show us which direction to head, I’m sure we can figure the rest out ourselves.”

  “Bates will handle that,” Byron offered. “He runs the house.”

  “Kind of like Bates on Downton Abbey, right?” Zander asked, his eyes sparkling.

  The butler’s expression never changed. “It’s not like that at all.”

  Zander was taken aback by the cool dismissal. He was used to people falling all over him — rich people, poor people, outgoing people, introverts ... it didn’t matter — and he clearly wasn’t happy with the current
tone of the visit. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way. I just ... you know, Bates.”

  “I’m familiar with the television show,” Bates said dryly. “I can assure you that our duties are completely dissimilar.”

  Amused despite herself, it took everything Harper had to keep from barking out a raucous laugh. “I’m sure the duties are completely different,” she reassured him. “I mean ... you probably don’t have to help Mr. Jessup get dressed or anything, right?”

  “Not more than three times a week.”

  Harper pressed her lips together and widened her eyes as she glanced at Jared. It was obvious he was as amused with the conversation as she was.

  “Well, we thank you for helping us,” Jared said finally. “We’re looking forward to this weekend. Knowing we don’t have to worry about any of the equipment is a great relief.”

  “I’m sure.” Bates’ expression was almost a sneer. “And what sort of equipment does a ghost hunter require?”

  His disdain was evident and it set Harper’s teeth on edge. “You would be surprised. We have EVP recorders, EMF meters, laser grid kits, a spirit box, Mel Meters ... and the rest. Just the normal stuff.”

  “I’m afraid I’ve never heard of any of that. It doesn’t sound normal to me.”

  “Well, I’m sure there are things in your world that don’t sound normal to us,” Harper pointed out. “That doesn’t mean they’re not real.”

  “I suppose.” Bates opted for silence for the rest of the trip. He didn’t speak again until they were positioned in front of what was termed “a small guesthouse.” It was three times as big as Harper’s house. “Will this do?” he asked primly.

  Harper hoped she wasn’t openly gaping because it would give the ostentatious man a reason to judge her. “It will be fine,” she replied crisply. “This is a work trip, not a vacation. We don’t need cushy accommodations.”

  Jared arched a delighted eyebrow as he scooted around her, his arms laden with bags. He was genuinely amused with her attitude. He held it together until they were inside — Bates on his way back to the main house — and then asked the obvious question.